My name is Jo and I am fully qualified with Creative Nail Design in Shellac, Minx, Spa Pedicure and Spa Manicure. I was trained in Cheltenham by the amazing Kate Taylor who taught me to the very highest standard, ensuring that hygene was my top priority.
I am fully insured by Babtac, the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology.

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Wednesday, 27 June 2012

To all Shellac customers - make sure you are getting www.cnd.comShellac and not another brand!

I felt I had to write this as I have now had two of my clients come to me saying they got Shellac done elsewhere but on receiving the treatment said the bottles were not Shellac even though they were advertising the service Shellac.

I will tell you about my most recent experience in my salon www.ezina.co.uk One of my ladies who comes to me regularly for a shellac pedicure every 4-6 weeks visited me a couple of weeks ago, she ony has a pedicure as she is in the medical industry and sadly is not allowed to wear Shellac on her fingers. (I have done it on her on one occasion when she was going on holiday). So she does know all about Shellac and gets on very well with it.

Anyway the other weekend a friend of hers said her sister was practising with Shellac and would she be a model to practise on, my client said no problem she was having some time off so it would be fine to have it on her fingers. This took place on the Saturday, anyway along my client went and as this other person went through the process my client realised this was not Shellac being used, her nails were buffed to take off the shine, the UV lamp was on continuously, the colour didnt even represent any CND Shellac colour!! She didnt want to say anything, after all it was for free so she just went along with it and left it at that.

My client was then coming to me on the following Wednesday (4 days later) for her Shellac pedicure. Anyway we got chatting and she was telling me about how she was lead to believe it was Shellac treatment she was getting but realised by the look of the lamp and bottles that it wasnt but had gone along with it anyway as she felt too awkward to say anything. She showed me her fingers and she asked me if i could remove it as every finger had chipped and one had come off completely removing some of her nail plate with it and causing peeling on the nail plate. I gladly said I would remove it after her pedicure.

I finished her pedicure and consequently wrapped her nails in magis wraps and acetone (dsolve) to remove the unknown brand of Shellac copy. Well all I can say is one hour later, after having wrapped her fingers 5 times in foil and acetone I revealed her very dry, dehydrated, peeling nails. I smothered them in solar oil and cuticle eraser and gave her some CND hand cream. I said to her if she didnt know me and if she hadnt had first hand experience of the REAL shellac, how would she rate it. She said if she had only had the other treatment, (the not real thing) she would have never had it again and wouldnt have recommended it to anyone.

So here is my advice:

to all customers out there when having a shellac manicure, check all the bottles are branded "CND Shellac", secondly make sure the lamp is CND, the curing of the shellac under the lamp is very important and will determine how long it lasts, and thirdly check the salon or beauty therapist has a shellac certificate (see photo). Beauty salons/therapists are selling Shellac as a concept using other products and not as a BRAND.

People think they are getting Shellac but they are in fact NOT, they are getting a cheaper brand and then experiencing problems such as peeling and chipping giving Shellac a bad name and putting people off having it done again. To all of those who have experienced this, go to a certified salon, http://www.cnd.com/find-salon go on to the CND website, they list these and try it again, I can promise you, you will not be disappointed.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Loving funky jubilee/olympic designs by minx, have had loads of requests for these, they are amazing. Polished toes are now a thing of the past. I offer minx at my home salon based in Witney. Click on website for more details www.ezina.co.uk

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

I am in love with Eve Taylor Skincare Range, I came across Eve Taylor 9 months ago at a beauty fair, at Olympia Beauty and fell in love with the aromatherapy smells from the products. I decided to take on the range and use it for my facials in my salon The Ezina Sanctuary in Witney Oxfordshire. I am also a firm believer in you should practice what you preach so I got rid of my personal Skincare range which was Elemis and started using Eve Taylor. I have now been using the range for 3 months and I have to say I have noticed a difference, apart from the amazing fresh smell, the moisturisers leave your skin nourished without being greasy and shiny.

I have a combination skin so I opted for the balancing range, using the cleanser, toner and once a month the masque. For my moisturiser I used age resist day cream along with the solar shield (contains SPF hence protecting my skin). I also use the exfoliating scrub everyday (it is very mild but leave my skin clean, bright and soft).

I have also now performed quite a few facials on many clients all of whom have loved it and have actually moved away from Clarins and Dermalogica for their everyday Skincare. They are over the moon with the results!

In fact one of my clients the other day came into me and told me Eve Taylor herself had been interviewed on BBC Breakfast, my client watched it and her words to me were " if I can look as good as Eve Taylor at that age I will be a happy woman, she looked amazing!" - proof is in the pudding!

Today I have ordered two products from their advanced Skincare range: 100% pure Hyaloronic acid and the ultra rich solution to take another step further to improving my skin condition. I read an amazing article about these two products so I will report back in a few months with the results on these!